3 Tips on How to Prioritize Your Work Load

There are many ideas on who, what, when, why, and how you should prioritize. It should go without saying that what works for one person may not work for you...so you should definitely try different methods and find out what works best for you.

Too, what works this week may not work next week. So any take-a-way should also include the understanding about the need to remain somewhat flexible and have a few different methods in place from which you can choose.

With that said, I'd like give you my 3 tips on how to prioritize your work load. It's the same system that works for me the vast majority of the time.

Tip #1-By Order of Importance

Obviously some things are of greater importance than others. For instance, in my case, I may have 4 tasks to accomplish on my to do list today such as:

Write 5 articles-This really is a priority task.

Record for 2 hours-This is also a priority task.

Answer coaching client's questions-This, too, is a high priority task.

Answer personal emails-This may have to get pushed aside if time is running short in my day.

Tip #2-By Deadline

It would seem logical that something with a deadline, by default, needs to be handled quickly. I remember when I was applying to college that there seemed so many deadlines for this and that it about drove me crazy.

What I do is take all my tasks that have deadlines and then go ahead and schedule them on a calendar for certain days so that they all get done before the deadline.

I am...ashamedly...sometimes a procrastinator on those tasks which, yes they have a deadline, but I'm still just not keen on doing them. For example, recently 2 of my grandchildren were doing a fundraiser by selling the magazines (yes, I hear the groans). I put that off for 2 weeks and finally thought to look at the deadline. It was for that very day.

Phew! I made it...barely. I ordered 2 magazines from each of them so now they'll each get a Spongebob Squarepants shirt.

Tip #3-By Greatest Impact

I have many tasks that I can choose from each and every day. The trick is to choose the tasks which will have the greatest impact on my life or my work in general. For instance, I don't want to waste time on tasks that won't provide a decent return for my time spent.

Watching TV, surfing the internet, reading the newspaper, spending a lot of time chatting on the phone...these are all big time-wasters in my mind and if you're serious about time management you absolutely must get these time suckers under control.

I hope these 3 tips on how to prioritize your work load have been, and will be, helpful to you.

By the way, do you want to learn more about time management? If so, then download my brand new free ebook about Time Management. Or, visit me at Must Be A Better Way